1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus and a web application installing method, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus to read contents from a web page and to generate a virtual application so as to provide a web service associated with the virtual application, and a web application installing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, image forming apparatuses print print data generated by terminal devices (such as computers), onto print media. Examples of such image forming apparatuses include copiers, printers, facsimile machines, and multifunction peripherals (MFPs) that combine operations of copiers, printers, and/or facsimile machines in a single system.
Recent image forming apparatuses are mounted with open architecture platforms that enable installation of various programs in addition to generally installed programs to provide additional services. However, to install such additional services in image forming apparatuses, users need to be provided with applications that provide these services from developers or manufacturers, and need to install the applications, resulting in an inconvenience to the users.
Additionally, image forming apparatuses have recently been able to display external applications of external web servers on built-in web browsers using HyperText transport protocol (HTTP) technologies. However, in this situation, users can only use such applications in external web servers, and cannot reconstruct a variety of contents existent on web sites.